States exhibit tremendous dynamism and variability over time, gaining and losing capacity or legitimacy at different points or among certain sectors. This is most readily illustrated in discussions of hegemony, which, by definition, is constantly changing. A ruling class earns legitimacy and authority only to the degree that it incorporates the needs and desires of popular actors into their state projects. Thus, a given state’s legitimacy may be stronger in some years or among some sectors than others. The efforts of Colombia’s artisan bakers to curb speculation and control the distribution of flour demonstrates this. The political exclusion of popular actors in Colombia was based on a concept known as convivialismo, which as a set of unwritten rules governing Colombian society, and granting power to a ruling class in exchange for their attention to the needs of the popular class. This paper examines the monthly magazine of the bakers’ association, to show how they deployed convivialista discourses as they attempted to lobby the state to defend their interests. Their discourses reveal the process of hegemony at work, and suggests ways to assess relative strength and weakness of states past and present.